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Cruise passengers plead guilty to smuggling cocaine

Twenty-three year old Melina Roberge and Andre Tamine, 64, had previously denied their roles in importing 95kg of drugs on the Sea Princess in 2016.

However they have now changed their pleas ahead of a trial which is due to start this week.A third Canadian, Isabelle Lagace, 29, was sentenced to jail in November for her role in the smuggling.

The cocaine is understood to have had a street value of £12 million according to the authorities, making it the largest seizure of its kind on a passenger boat in Australia.

Roberge and Lagace had posted photos of themselves enjoying a seven-week holiday onboard the cruise which had set sail from Southampton.

However when the ship docked in Sydney police sniffer dogs found 35kg of cocaine within their shared cabin. Another 60kg was then found in Tamine’s cabin.

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Richmond train crash: passengers injured at Sydney station

Sixteen people have been taken to hospital after a train hit a rail buffer at Richmond in Sydney’s north-western outskirts, with witnesses describing the scene as “chaotic”.

Sign up for Guardian Today Australian edition: the stories you need to read, in one handy email Read more New South Wales police said on Monday that the train had crashed into a buffer at the end of the train line while “slowing to stop at the station”.

A number of passengers and two Sydney Trains employees, including the driver, were treated at the scene.

Police said 11 people were treated at a nearby oval after the accident, and although five people remained on the train to be treated no one was trapped

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Terrorism in Melbourne

Dramatic video shows panic outside Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station as witnesses run to stop a smoking SUV after it crashed into Christmas crowds injuring more 20 and to help victims on the ground.

The video shows injured pedestrians lying on the road being treated by concerned passersby as they wait for paramedics to arrive.

Another video taken by an onlooker shows police restrained an irate man who appeared to be abusing the driver of a car who allegedly ploughed into pedestrians.

A car crashed into a crowd of people at Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station at 4.41pm.

 

 

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Another leadership crisis brewing in Australia

In a notably half-hearted defence of his party leader, Australian Liberal MP Kevin Andrews last Friday (Nov 3) reaffirmed his political loyalty but proceeded to describe Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as the leader “at the moment”.

As those three words indicate, Australia’s long-running leadership circus is back.

Three Australian prime ministers have been toppled by internal party coups since 2010 – Mr Kevin Rudd, Ms Julia Gillard and Mr Tony Abbott – and Mr Turnbull’s future is looking increasingly shaky.

 

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Terror Plot in Sydney

Five jailed over Terror Plot in Sydney.

Four men and a teenager have been jailed in Australia over a plot to carry out a terror attack in Sydney.

They are guilty to conspiring to commit a terrorist attack.

The plot had included discussions about targeting an Australian Federal Police building in Sydney and a jail in nearby Lithgow, a court heard.

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